In The Good Suicides, Antonio Hill (The Summer of Dead Toys) returns to Barcelona and the introspective, aggressive, chain-smoking Inspector Hector Salgado. Salgado is trying to cope with being a single father and the lack of progress in the investigation for his missing ex-wife, Ruth. He's unaware that his former partner, Leire Castro, currently out on maternity leave, has started sleuthing into Ruth's disappearance.
Salgado is looking into an apparent suicide: a young woman named Sara has jumped in front of a subway train. He soon learns that Sara is the second employee from a small cosmetics company to kill herself in less than six months. And when another member of Alemany Cosmetics overdoses mere weeks later, Salgado is sure that the "suicides" all tie back to a recent company retreat. At that corporate event, the employees witnessed a gruesome spectacle: three dead dogs hanging from the branches of a tree. Salgado is convinced that the disturbing photo of the dead dogs, e-mailed to Sara just before her death, is the key to unlocking the mystery.
Though The Good Suicides is not a fast-paced thriller, Hill ratchets up the psychological tension in this otherwise quiet novel. Leire's investigation into the days leading up to Ruth's disappearance creates an uneasy mood that underscores the disturbing nature of Salgado's case. A dark look at the nature of greed and the pressure of deception, The Good Suicides is worth your time. Fans of Nordic noir will welcome a trip to a sunnier, and yet still engrossing, climate. --Jessica Howard, blogger at Quirky Bookworm